A to Z Glossary of Satellite TV Terminologies and their Definition

Odd Field

The half frame of a television scan which is composed of odd-numbered lines.

Offset Feed

A feed which is offset from the center of a reflector for use in satellite receiving systems. This configuration does not block the dish aperture.

Overscan

– Geek box term. The amount of picture area that gets cropped off along the edges of a television screen. Zero percent overscan means the television does not crop off any of the incoming pictures. Overscan is often set intentionally at the factory to be 5 percent, or even higher along the edges, to ensure the screen is full at all times regardless of fluctuations in brightness (which can change the overall picture size) or nonstandard signals, such as those from camcorders or video games.

Packet Identity (PID)

A 13-bit number that identifies transport stream packets containing data from a single data stream

Packetizer

An entity that breaks a stream up into discrete units of data and, usually, encapsulates each packet with extra information used to allow the packets to be reliably re-assembled into the continuous data stream

Packetized Elementary Stream (PES)

An elementary stream that is divided into typically large packets of a defined structure before being further packetized for the MPEG transport process

Phase Alternate Line (PAL)

The European/African color TV format which evolved from the American NTSC standard. PAL-I version used in South Africa.

PAL:

– Phase Alternating Line. This video-transmission standard was introduced in the early 1960s and is used in most European countries except France and the former Soviet Union. PAL standards specify 625 lines of resolution at 50fps.

Pan-and-scan

– Process of transferring a movie or other source material to videocassette, DVD, or broadcast so that it fits the 4:3 aspect ratio of most current TVs. This results in a significant amount of lost picture information, particularly in the width of the image, and sometimes involves panning unnaturally across the frame. At the beginning of a movie, there is often a disclaimer about the movie having been “…formatted to fit your TV.” That means it’s been converted to pan-and-scan. See also anamorphic.

Pixel

– Dots of color, sometimes composed of separate red, green, and blue subpixels, that combine to create an image; from the words picture element.

PLUNGE

– Picture Line-Up Generation Equipment. Test pattern for video equipment to set black level.

Plasma

– The display technology is used in large-screen, flat-panel TVs. Each plasma panel contains thousands of tiny tubes that are like miniature fluorescent lights, filled with ionized gas in a plasma state. When excited by electricity, the tubes–which are backed by red, green, or blue phosphors–glow in different colors and intensities to create an image.

Progressive scanning

– Also called sequential scanning, this is the antithesis of interlaced scanning used in broadcast television, the process by which all odd and even scanning lines are “painted” by an electron beam every 1/60 of a second. This method reduces flicker and increases stability.

Patching

Patching means altering the software or firmware to create new possibilities. When we talk about patching receivers (like the famous Allcam patch) it means that the original receiver firmware is modified in such a way that it is able to do more than the manufacturer intended it to do.

The Allcam patch, for instance, is a modification that allows you to decode multiple coding systems on just 1 CAM. Such Allcam patches are offered for several receivers, on the web.
But also creating a new language version of the receiver operating system, requires a firmware modification and would thus be called a patch.

Pay Per View

Pay Per View (PPV) as the name implies, is a technique, used to charge a viewer only for the program he/she watches. So with PPV, whenever you want to watch a movie or sports match, you will pay for that program only.

Phase

A measure of the relative position of a signal relative to a reference expressed in degrees.

Phase Distortion

A distortion of the phase component of a signal. This occurs when the phase shift of an amplifier is not proportional to frequency over the design bandwidth.

Picture Detail

The number of picture elements resolved on a television picture screen. More crisp pictures result as the number of picture elements is increased.

Polar Mount

A dish mount that permits all satellites in the geosynchronous arc to be scanned with the movement of only one axis.

Polarisation

A characteristic of the electromagnetic wave. Four senses of polarisation, determined by the direction of the electric field, are used in satellite transmissions: horizontal; vertical; right-hand circular; and left-hand circular.

Positive Picture Phase

Positioning of the composite video signal so that the maximum point of the sync pulses is at zero voltage. The brightest illumination is caused by the most positive voltages.

PPUA

The PPUA or Program Provider User Address is a 4-byte long code, composed of 2 separate codes. The first 3 bytes of the PPUA is called the Shared Address, the last byte of the PPUA is the Customer Word Pointer. The PPUA is used to identify and address cards.

Preamplifier

The first amplification stage. In a terrestrial receive system, it is the amplifier mounted adjacent to an antenna to increase a weak signal prior to its processing at the headend

Pre-emphasis

Increases in the higher frequency components of an FM signal before transmission. Used in conjunction with the proper amount of de-emphasis at the receiver, it results in combating the higher noise detected in FM transmissions.

Pre-Enabling

Making subscription products available on the decoding device before releasing into the marketplace

Presentation Time Stamp (PTS)

A 33-bit field indicating when the packetized elementary stream (PES) packet should be presented to the user (90 kHz base reference)

Prime Focus Dish

A parabolic dish has the feed/LNA assembly at the focal point directly in the front of the dish.

Provider Group & Provider ID

A 3-byte hexadecimal number to identify a card. The first 2 bytes identify the Provider Group, the 3rd byte is the Provider ID and is either 00 or 10. So only 2 different IDs are used. Most providers are addressed using Provider ID 00. One exception is German Provider Premier World which uses Provider ID 10.

Program Clock Reference (PCR)

A counter based on a 27 MHz time-base is used to synchronize the presentation of data arriving in different data streams on the multiplex (asynchronously). The PCR is split into two sections when supplied – 33 bits giving 1/90 kHz resolution and a 9-bit extension to fine-tune to 27 MHz

Program Map Table (PMT)

A table that identifies the data streams that comprise a service and provides other data used for decoding these services

Program Specific Information (PSI)

Information is provided in a format defined by MPEG to convey the essential data a decoder must have to receive one or more services make up of elementary streams. It consists primarily of the program association table (PAT), program map table (PMT), and conditional access table (CAT), although it also introduces the network information

Programme Stream (PS)

A MPEG 2 multiplex with variable length packets that are typically large – intended for low error rate transport media with only a single program, for example, CD-ROM ion table (NIT)

PVP:

– Personal video player. A portable device designed to play back video files from a hard drive; may or may not include a small LCD screen.

PVR:

– Personal video recorder. See DVR.

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK)

A modulation technique used on satellite transmissions that uses phase shifts of a carrier wave to relay 4 symbols per cycle

Satellite TV glossary & definitions – Part 6

Q Signal

One of two color video signal components is used to modulate the color subcarrier. It represents the color range from yellowish to green to magenta.

QAM

– Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. Type of digital cable tuner.

Radio Frequency (RF)

The approximately 10 kHz to 100 GHz electromagnetic band of frequencies is used for man-made communication.

Rainbow effects

A potential problem with DLP-based displays is characterized by brief streaks of color, especially in fast-moving scenes. The occurrence of these rainbows can be significantly reduced with newer and faster color wheels

Raster

The random pattern of illumination is seen on a television screen when no video signal is present.

Reed Switch

A mechanical switch which uses two thin slivers of metal in a glass tube to make and break electrical contact and thus to count pulses that are sent to the dish actuator controller. The position of the slivers of metal is governed by a magnetic field applied by a bar or other type of magnet.

Reference Signal

A highly stable signal used as a standard against which other variable signals may be compared and adjusted.

Return Loss

This is the ratio of the amount of reflected signal to the total available signal entering a device expressed in decibels.

Retrace

The blanked-out line traced by the scanning beam of a picture tube as it travels from the end of any horizontal line to the beginning of either the next horizontal line or field.

Rear projection

– TV system where the picture is projected onto the rear of a translucent screen via a series of mirrors and viewed as you would an average television.

Red push

– Tendency of the color decoder in many TVs to accentuate the color of red compared to blue and green. Red push is typically introduced intentionally to compensate for an overly blue color temperature.

Resolution

– The sharpness of a video image, signal, or display, is generally described either in terms of lines of resolution, or pixels. The visible resolution depends on both the resolution of the display and the resolution of the video signal. Since video images are always rectangle-shaped, they are described with both horizontal and vertical resolution.

RF jack

– Radiofrequency jack. Audio/video connection is commonly used to bring signals from antennas, cable systems, and satellite dishes to components with some type of tuner, such as cable boxes, cable modems, HDTV set-top boxes, VCRs, and satellite receivers, TVs, and so on. It can carry video and stereo-audio information simultaneously. When used to connect two components, such as a VCR and a TV, RF provides the lowest video quality of any connection. RF cable connectors usually screw or push onto the jack. Also called F-type, 75-ohm, or coaxial connections.